The Cannon
by RubyWings91
Summary: After the incident on the Water Tower, Mabel has found that she is afraid of heights. A discovery she and Dipper make in the woods will lead to her being forced to face her new fear or else. Set a few days after Fight Fighters. This story was inspired by a request from Barbacar. I hope everyone who reads this enjoys it.
1. Chapter 1

Opening notes:

I don't own Gravity Falls or any of it's characters. It all belongs to Alex Hirsch.

First, I'd like to thank Barbacar for making the request that inspired this story. I have placed the prompt itself at the end of this chapter, along with a warning because it contains spoilers for what to expect with the other two chapters. This is the first time I've written a piece based on another person's idea and I hope that I did it well.

Also, since the last time I posted the last fanfiction story for Gravity Falls, I have read Journal 3 and Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Funand although I feel that I didn't spoil anything major from either in this, they both have some influences on my story (especially the journal). I thought I would give everyone a heads up, just in case there are readers who haven't read them, are planning to and don't want to risk any types of spoilers.

I hope everyone who reads this story enjoys it.

* * *

The Cannon: Chapter 1

 _The tower swayed precariously as Mabel, Grunkle Stan and Robbie pressed against the side of the water storage unit, all scared for their lives as Dipper's mad computer game character attacked the support beams below them. Then it began tipping and the tower gave a loud groan ending with a snap as the tower lurched and suddenly they were plummeting toward the ground…_

Mabel awoke in her bed with a gasp. It was just a dream. The water tower hadn't fallen last weekend. Everything had turned out okay. She took deep breaths, trying to slow her rapidly beating heart.

Dipper, whom for once had been asleep, must have sensed her distressed because he rolled over in his covers and sat up. "What's wrong?"

"N-n-nothing." Well stuttering like Blendin Blandin while she said that certainly wasn't going to convince her brother of that.

Dipper sighed and asked, "The water tower, again?"

Hearing the depressed note in his voice, she looked over at him. Guilt was clearly written across his features, standing out as brightly as his still healing bruises from the beating he had taken to stop McSkirmish.

Determined to comfort her brother, Mabel said, "It wasn't your fault, Dipper."

"Yes it was. I was the one who brought Rumble McSkirmish here and I was the one who sent him on his rampage." He sighed and added, "I was too afraid to face Robbie and I almost got you guys killed for it. And now, you're too scared to even climb up to the roof."

She remembered the last time she had tried to join Dipper and Wendy up there just a couple days ago. She'd been doing fine until she looked down when she was about halfway up the ladder. Upon seeing the ground so far below, she had frozen in place, shaking as she held onto the ladder as if her life depended on it. Dipper had come down the ladder and distracted her, keeping her attention on him rather than toward the floor as she forced herself to go back down one step at a time until she reached the bottom again.

She frowned and looked down at her hands, clenching and opening them a couple times as she recalled how her knuckles had stood out as she gripped the rungs of the ladder in her terror. She hated the fear that gripped her every time she so much as thought of being in a high place. Finally, she sighed and said, "I think I'm going to get some breakfast and then do some knitting."

"I'll get up too," he stated, grabbing up the third journal as he said this, "I've gotten enough sleep anyway."

Mabel knew that was not true. He was just getting up to keep her company. She could even see the bags under his eyes. Still, it was obvious that there would be no convincing him to lay down again. So, she just nodded, smiled and said, "I'll make us some Mable Juice to start our morning."

Dipper nodded and said, "Sounds good," only further proving her suspicion that he was doing this for her. He barely ever drank her special drink and certainly not for breakfast. "So, do you have any idea what type of design you'll put on this sweater?"

"Not yet," she replied as she got out of bed.

As they went downstairs, still in their night clothes, they were quiet so as not to risk waking Grunkle Stan too early. He wouldn't be up for another half an hour or so. And then he would be working to get the Shack ready for the morning tour. He was also expecting a shipment for the puppy smuggling ring later this evening after he closed too. Mabel momentarily wondered if he'd let her pet some puppies while he held them overnight. She hoped so, they were just so cute.

She set the coffee to brew so that it would be ready when their Grunkle did come down the stairs before starting on her Mabel juice. As she grabbed the ingredients, she also put the milk on the table for her brother.

Dipper opened the cabinet and then pulled out a couple boxes of cereal. As he poured himself some, he asked, "What are you doing this evening? Hanging out with Candy and Grenda?"

"Nah, Candy has a case of the sniffles and Grenda's family is going to a reptile expo."

"Maybe you could come with me later. I've been finding piles of ashes in this one section of the woods…I think it might be from a scampfire." Dipper pulled the journal out of his vest pocket and flipped to a page that showed a few different monsters, including what looked like a walking campfire. "I was planning on bringing a water gun and some water balloons for safety, having you with me would mean twice as much."

She looked at the picture for a moment and read the brief description of the creature before she smiled at her brother and said, "Sound's good to me."

* * *

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

The Request: "How about a story with Wendy and Mabel? The prompt is 'The characters find a large, fairly old looking cannon with the kind of fuse that gets lit with a match. One character gets fired out of the cannon by the other character.'"


	2. Chapter 2

The Cannon: Chapter 2

A few hours later, Mabel was following Dipper through the woods. Both were armed with a water gun each, beyond that, their attire greatly varied.

On top of his usual blue vest and pine tree trucker hat, Dipper was wearing hiking boots and a backpack full of gear for a day's hike. This included stuff like an extra pair of clothes, water bottle, a compass, snacks, and a whole bunch of other stuff Mabel hadn't really listened to him describe. He'd ditched his plans for carrying water balloons, since the extra weight would have probably tired him out quickly and would definitely slow him down if they had to run for some reason. And of course, he had his journal too, although he had sealed it in a plastic bag so that it wouldn't get wet.

Mabel on the other hand had brought her own gear. She had grabbed her knitting supplies, in case they had to wait in some place for a while, as Dipper sometimes did if the creature he investigated had an obvious repeatedly used trail that it took through the woods. She'd also packed a set of stickers in case an opportunity arose. If one came up, she didn't want to miss it.

She also had two bags of marshmallows. One Dipper had given her to use as bait for the scampfires. The other was for her to enjoy on the way, as her brother knew her well enough to know that if there were sweets, she would definitely have to eat some of them. This is exactly what she was doing when they came across a pile of ashes beneath the trees.

Dipper rushed over to the ash pile excitedly. He reached out his hand above the burnt spot on the ground, turned it palm up and brought his hand down close to them to feel if there was any heat still rising off of them. "It's still warm. If a scampfire burned like a regular campfire, then this is probably a day old at most." He walked around the ash remains until he came across sets of circular prints moving away from the spot and into the trees. "This must have been made when it left."

"Do you think there's enough heat left to roast one of the marshmallows?"

Dipper rolled his eyes as he fingered one of the water balloons taped to his side. "We aren't here to roast the marshmallows, Mabel. We're here to find a scampfire."

"Well then maybe we can roast some for us and the scampfires when we find them."

"Considering that the author suspects they might like to burn campers, too…"

"He didn't know that," Mabel argued, "I saw the question mark when you showed me that page of the journal. Maybe they're just really excited when they see people with stuff to heat up and eat."

Dipper sighed and said, "Come on. Let's just follow the trail." A trail which of course went uphill. Why couldn't this monster have chosen an easy route?

For a while, they trekked on in silence, since Dipper was afraid that making too much noise would scare off their quarry. After about an hour, in the midst of taking a moment to wipe her now grossly sweaty on her clothes, Mabel decided she couldn't take it anymore. "Dipdop, how much further are we going to go? We haven't seen any more signs of these fires from that journal and this whole walking in silence thing is really boring."

Dipper glanced at her, "look, if we don't find anything soon, we'll call it a night. I promise."

She nodded and swallowed, feeling a familiar kind of stickiness in the back of her throat, "I'm starting to get thirsty, too."

Dipper sighed and offered her his water bottle, which she accepted willingly even as he said, "I told you to bring one for yourself."

"I didn't think you were planning on being out this long or going this far. Isn't there plenty of stuff to look at closer to the shack, Dipper? I hope you don't usually do this on your own. What would happen if some dangerous monster found you out here?"

"Things would turn out fine. I've been scouting the area out, I know where there are a few places to hide from the bigger monsters and I'm sure I could find ways to deal with the smaller ones."

"Yeah? What if the gnomes decide to get revenge on us, then?" Although most of the gnomes were too clueless to think up something on their own, she wouldn't put it past Jeff to use Dipper as a hostage to trade for her if he was still interested in marrying her.

"They're so noisy that I can hear them coming long before they find me," he stated, sounding unconcerned. "Besides, I don't plan on going much further. If we don't find anything in a few minutes, we'll start heading back."

Mabel sighed in exasperation. She glanced across the hills at the sun shining between the limbs, leaves and needles above and noticed that it was getting close to the mountains. In fact, it looked like at the bottom of the valley, much of the town was already covered in the shadows cast by some of the surrounding mountains.

A few minutes later, Mabel and Dipper found a small clearing, in the middle of which was another pile of ashes. Dipper walked over to investigate it and finished his search with a sigh of frustration and stated, "At least I have a starting place for tomorrow," he said, clearly more than a little disappointed.

Despite the exhaustion Mabel felt from their trek up here,she hated seeing her brother looking down. She wished she could cheer him up a little. Suddenly she had an idea as she watched him continuing to solemnly stare off into the woods. Ignoring the her sore feet and achy limbs, she braced herself for action as she grabbed her water gun and gave it a couple of good pumps. "Hey Dipper," she called out.

Dipper turned toward her to get a face full of water. "Mabel!" he cried out in annoyance and for a moment, he looked like he was going to scold her for her actions. Then he seemed to surrender whatever anger he felt and smiled as he rolled away while she started pumping her gun again. He came up a couple moments later with his own water gun in hand. He laughed as he pointed it at Mabel and fired.

Mabel jumped behind the trunk of a tree and shouted, "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to get me, Dipper."

"Oh, I'm just getting started."

They chased each other for a few minutes in the woods, dodging around trees and hiding behind rocks to avoid each other's shots whenever they could. Still, by the time they'd emptied their water guns, both were soaked.

They sat down next to each other, leaning against a fallen log in the deepening evening light to catch their breath. Dipper looked up at the sun touching the horizon through a gap in the trees and said, "We should probably start heading home soon."

Mabel nodded but said, "Maybe we should have a snack first."

"Sure, why not?" Dipper replied and started digging into his pack for trail mix and a couple of apples. He handed one of the apples to Mable and placed the bag of trail mix on the ground between them.

Mabel pulled out the nearly empty bag of marshmallows she'd been enjoying on the way up, along with the unopened full one. As she placed them next to Dipper's stuff, she noticed that, not only had he brought the extra apple, but enough trail mix for both of them as well.

The two children sat quietly side by side, enjoying their snack as their damp clothes dried a little in the warm summer air. Around them, they could hear the bird songs, squirrel chatter, calls of insects and frogs, and occasional sounds of unidentifiable origin in the distance, mixed with the rustle of pine needles, rattle of leaves, and creak swaying trees as the wind blew through them. The world around them was bathed in the golden light that came at early sunset.

"What a beautiful evening," Mabel stated.

"Yeah," Dipper replied. "It's hard to believe how upset we were when Mom and Dad told us that we'd be spending our summer out here?"

Mabel chuckled, "You were annoyed when you found out there'd probably be no video games, but I thought you were going to lose it when they also said that Grunkle Stan didn't have a computer," she exclaimed. "Of course, that's probably part of the reason we got sent here."

Dipper looked annoyed, "So I made a virus that caused the school's computers to change the letters to A1Z26 code. It was a joke! I even made it easy to remove. I wasn't doing any harm."

"I know that. Do you think I would have been willing to distract everyone while you did your work if I thought you were?"

"Thanks for your help, by the way."

"I'm always up for a little prank here or there. Still, you should have known Dad would catch you. He's a programmer, for goodness sake."

"You know, Dad only knew it was me because he recognized some lines of code he taught me. Plus, somebody came home wearing a sweater that had a hand making peace sign in the front and one with its finger's crossed in the back."

"It was a coincidence," Mabel replied jokingly.

"He couldn't even actually track it back to the computer I used, you know." He smiled wryly.

"Some of the teachers gave extra credit points to kids who solved some stuff they put up for their classes before the virus was taken down."

"I know. I was one of the students who got the credit," Dipper replied. "I'm guessing Dad thought that a summer of honest work would be the best thing for us." He was laughing before he finished the words.

"He certainly chose the wrong place to send us then, didn't he? It's like criminal training camp out here! With Grunkle Stan as head counselor."

"Yeah, It kind of is. At least, when we're not dealing with the weird stuff around here."

"It's hard to believe we didn't want to come now, isn't it? I think this is already the best summer I've ever had."

"Me too," Dipper replied with a contented smile before taking a bite from his half-eaten apple.

Mabel was about to say something more but forgot when she caught a whiff of something burning, "Hey Dipper, do you smell that?"

Dipper sniffed and said, "I don't smell…" Suddenly, he stiffened,"No way."

"Do you think it's one of the fires?"

"Only one way to find out," he said, an excited smile growing on his face. The twins followed their noses, trying to find the source of the smell and soon the scent of wood smoke had grown noticeably stronger as they followed it from downwind of the source.

After a few minutes, they came to an opening in the trees. It was filled with some of the most beautiful flowers Mabel had seen in Gravity Falls. "Oh, look! They're so pretty," Mabel said. She was about to rush out and look at them when Dipper grabbed her and pulled her back behind the bush.

"Mabel, look at the burned spots." It took a moment for her to realize what he was talking about but once she noticed, she saw it everywhere. There were several bare patches that were nothing more than piles of ash of various ages. Some were freshly made, and others were old and being reclaimed by the plants in the field. In fact, all the flowers seemed to grow in rounded patches, now that she looked.

"I've heard of some plants that only grow after a fire. These flowers must be some of them. This has to be a big hang out spot for one of the scampfires."

"Well then I like its taste in gardening," Mabel stated. "Look at the patterns they have the flowers growing in."

Dipper looked out in the field. "It looks random to me."

Mabel looked around and said, "No, look at the way the patches of flowers are spaced. There's definitely some pattern going on here. They had to plan to make it look like this. Look, see that burned section in the center of the field? It looks like that's the center of the design."

"I'll take your word for it," Dipper replied. "You're the arts and crafts expert."

She smiled at his acknowledgment of her artistic abilities. "Thanks."

He looked around thoughtfully, "I wonder if they're normal flowers or weird like some of the creatures around here. I wish I knew more about plants so I could tell. The Author didn't seem too interested in them at all. In fact, the only thing he mentions along those lines is a squash with a face that gave him the creeps. I'd consider getting samples to look up later if we had internet in the Shack but we don't."

Then she smiled and said in a half mocking tone, "Maybe you should pick some for Wendy."

Dipper sighed and rolled his eyes as Mabel started making kissing noises. Then his attention was taken by something across the field in the fading evening light. Mabel followed his gaze to a rocky hole in the ground from which a flickering glow from within and a slight shimmer in the air around it.

After a moment, a couple of what looked like giant flaming spiders came scuttling out and into the field, bringing their attention to a small winding path that they'd been unable to see before as it ran to the large burn spot Mabel had noted as the center of the clearing a moment ago. One had green flames imitating eyes and the other red. One jumped on the other and they went rolling in a heap together.

A third came out more slowly, this one also with red eyes. If Mabel didn't know any better, she'd say it looked exasperated with the other two's behavior as they broke apart.

"They're social," Dipper whispered in quiet amazement as a couple more scuttled out of the cave like a couple of crabs.

The tussling scampfires suddenly rolled into the third. Its flames flared as it let out a hiss before jumping into the fray. The three rolled around, a mess of sticks and flames in the bare spot in the center of the field as the other two watched with only mild interest.

Mabel laughed at the display and all the flaming figures paused and turned to look in her and Dipper's direction. Their demeanor shifted, and they hissed like drenched campfires and scuttled toward them.

"Run!" Dipper cried out, grabbing a handful of marshmallows from the mostly full bag and tossing the rest of it to the ground in hopes that it would distract the creatures as they fled.

The two children rushed across the ground striped with the extended shadows of the surrounding trees, jumping and dodging when they saw obstacles like tree roots or rocks sticking in the ground.

It was obvious by the crackling and the whoosh of flames in wind that they were being pursued.

"Mabel, I know you can run faster than I can with all the stuff I'm carrying, you should…"

"Don't be stupid, I'm not leaving you," she yelled as they rushed forward, angry that he would suggest she do something like that.

"Fine," Dipper replied and clumsily slipped the backpack off his shoulders, nearly falling over as he did so. As the boy looked back to see one of the scampfires taking the lead, he turned and threw his back pack at it. The creature backpedaled to avoid it, colliding with another as and becoming a hissing crackling ball of fiery limbs. Mabel might have found it funny if she wasn't too busy being scared for her life as they dashed away.

Suddenly, Mabel noticed a glow from below and to the left, as one of the scampfires moved to cut them off ahead. Dipper must have noticed too, because they spun and changed course to run in a different direction, uphill from the pursuit.

They ran up the incline, managing to put a little distance between themselves and the fire monsters. As they did so, but Mabel could feel her legs starting to burn and feel her breathing becoming more and more labored. She could see that Dipper was tiring too and even almost lost his footing a couple of times, falling a couple steps behind her.

Then they rounded a corner and were suddenly at the edge of a cliff. Mabel stopped herself just in time at the edge, looking down at the tops of trees several feet below. She instinctively put out a hand to keep her brother from going over the ledge as had she almost done, herself. Luckily since he was a few steps behind, he'd had more time to react and stopped before he got so close. Mabel felt a tug and realized that he was actually pulling at the back of her shirt to further help keep her from tipping over the precipice.

As she regained her balance, her heart was beating so hard that it actually hurt. She clenched her fists tightly as she backed away.

Mabel looked at her brother and could see his mind was still on the danger behind them. She could hear the crackling and see the shifting patterns of shadow and light as the scampfires came closer and quickly recalled why they had been running headlong toward the cliff in the first place.

Dipper glanced over and froze. Mabel followed his gaze to an object covered in a mix of vines, moss and lichens. She saw that there was a round hole and knew exactly what he was thinking. They wouldn't be able to outrun the scampfires, now that they were trapped here but maybe they didn't have to. Hopefully they wouldn't notice the hole in their rush to catch the kids they were pursuing.

Mabel and Dipper rushed over to the rounded hole and her brother echoed her own thoughts, "Maybe we can hide from them in here."

As they slid down into the hole, the smooth perfect curve made it clear that the object was artificial. She wondered what it was for.

Dipper tried to position himself in a way that was not uncomfortable for her but still put him between her and the entrance, as if he could shield her if the monsters found their hiding spot.

A moment later, the area outside the hole lit up and the crackling became crystal clear and it sounded like the fires were talking to each other. Considering the way they had interacted earlier, maybe they were.

The twins tried to keep their breathing slow and quiet, despite the pain of their lungs screaming for oxygen after their run.

After a minute, the flickering light and the crackling faded. The twins waited for several minutes even after their pursuers left before slipping out of the tube.

"That was close," Mabel stated, her breathing evening out.

"Yeah it was." Dipper stated. "What were we hiding in, anyway?" he asked. "Clearly it is manmade," he stated, walking around their hiding spot and pulling at vines. Mabel began helping him. It took several tugs to get them to release their hold.

As they did so, the object began to take shape, revealing itself to be a cannon. "Cool," Dipper said. "It looks like the kind that fire people in circus performances."

"You don't think it still works, do you?" Mabel asked, thinking about how they had been hiding from fire monsters in it. Fire monsters with flames that could easily light a fuse.

"Probably not but who knows out here? More unlikely things have happened in Gravity Falls." He walked another lap around it, careful not to get his feet tangled in the vines he had just pulled off of the thing. "How do you suppose it got here, anyway?"

"Maybe Wendy or Soos would know something about it," Mabel suggested. "We can ask them tomorrow."

Dipper nodded and said, "We should probably head back to the shack. It's already rather later than I planned to be out and I don't feel like bumping into anything in the dark out here." He walked back toward the cliff as Mabel watched nervously and looked at something she could not see from so far back. He nodded to himself, "I thought so." Then he looked back at Mabel, "Good news, and there's an overlook for tourists not far from here to look at the town."

"How's that good?" She asked, her mind summoning forth another angle from which to be reminded of how high they were.

"It means we're close to the road. We can follow it back to town. Personally, I'd rather be on the road than beneath the trees in the dark. C'mon, lets get going."

Mabel couldn't argue with that.

Dipper nodded and said, "We should probably head back to the shack. It's already later than I planned to be out and I don't feel like bumping into anything in the dark out here." He walked back toward the cliff as Mabel watched nervously and looked at something she could not see from so far back. He nodded to himself and said, "I thought so." He looked back at Mabel and said, "Good news, there's an overlook for tourists not far from here to look at the town."

"How's that good?"

"It means we're close to the road. We can follow it back to town. Personally, I'd rather be on the road than beneath the trees in the dark. C'mon, let's get going."

Mabel couldn't argue with that.


	3. Chapter 3

The Cannon: Chapter 3

The next day, during a slow spell at the Shack, Mabel, Dipper, Wendy and Soos were chatting about nothing in particular when Wendy asked, "So you guys do anything interesting last night?"

"yah, Dudes," Soos added, "I saw you tow were packing some supplies when I left yesterday. I don't suppose you saw anything cool last night, did you?"

"Oh yeah we did."

"Well," Wendy said, "Spill. Tell us what happened."

Dipper and Mabel told them about their close encounter with the scampfires and how they hid in what they later found to be a cannon.

Wendy was impressed, "How does a cannon end up out in the middle of the woods anyway?"

Soos smiled excitedly,"Dude's, I think I've heard about this thing. It was like, cursed or something by a circus performer who was fired and turned out to be a witch or something. Every time it was fired after she cast her spell, the person launched from it would hit something while shooting through the air. They finally decided to leave the cannon while they were performing here in Gravity Falls and left it somewhere in the woods. Nobody's seen it since."

"Until now," Dipper exclaimed proudly.

"Cool, a cursed cannon," Wendy stated. "Maybe you could take us to see it this evening after work."

"Yeah, that would be awesome." Soos stated.

"Sure," Dipper said, happy to show them his find. "Hey, Mabes, want come with us?"

Usually, he wouldn't ask about something like this, as it would be a given that she would but Mabel could tell that he was thinking about her reaction when she had seen the cliff. Still, there was no way she was letting them go without her. So, even as her gut clenched in fear, she said, "Of course I'll come with you guys."

* * *

As they headed up to the overlook where Dipper and Mabel had exited the woods at the night before, Dipper did a quick inventory on what he had on him. He had brought a few more bags of marshmallows, since they had worked so well to distract some of the scampfires last time, but was missing a lot of items that he would usually bring, since he'd had to ditch his backpack the night before.

He planned to check and see if there was anything left of the bag that was worth salvaging. It was supposed to rain the next morning and he didn't want to risk anything that might not be burned getting ruined by the water.

It only took a few minutes of wandering to find the cannon, especially since Dipper had taken note of the landmarks and marked the trail by breaking some twigs on the end of a few low hanging branches.

In broad daylight, the cannon was much easier to spot, even with the lichens and mosses growing on it. The design was royal blue with flames running up from the bottom in red orange and gold, topped with a ring of opal stars. Both the flames and the stars were made of metallic paint. Despite the fact that a lot of the paint had chipped off the metal of the barrel and several patches were covered by the moss and lichens, there were a few flecks across the surface which still shined brightly as they caught the evening light.

After looking for a few moments, Dipper stated, "Hey, guys," distracting Mabel from her thoughts, "I'm going to go check to see if there's anything left of that bag I dropped yesterday while we were running from the scampfires."

"Dude, you want me to come with you?" Soos asked.

"Sure."

Mabel and Wendy watched as the boys disappeared into the woods.

* * *

"So," Wendy asked, "How are you handling this?"

"What…what are you talking about?"

"C'mon, dude. I know you better than that. I saw you glancing at the cliff over there every few seconds." She gestured to the aforementioned drop off just a few meters away. "And I totally get it, I don't think I'd be too happy about heights after going through what you did, either."

"I don't want to be scared," Mabel said, "But I can't help it."

"Maybe a little time will help you with that."

"I hope so."

Suddenly, they heard a rustling of leaves and a crackling sound and turned to see a single scampfire scuttling out from among the trees. It paused as they looked at it, moved a few steps forward and paused again.

After a moment, Mabel carefully approached it. "Hello."

It leapt backward, causing Mabel to laugh. Was this really one of the creatures that they'd been fleeing last night?

It paused and looked at her for a moment made a rattling noise that startled her but didn't move from where it stood. As it made the creepy noise again, Wendy said, "Dude, I think it's trying to copy your laugh."

Mabel looked back at it and realized it was. After a moment, she pulled out the bag of marshmallows, "You want one?"

The creature's flames flared for a moment before dimming back to normal just as quickly.

Mabel smiled, "I'll take that as a yes." She tore open the bag and threw it a marshmallow, which landed in the flames and almost instantly browned and blackened in the flames. For a moment, Mabel and Wendy just watched it burn in the monster's flames but were startled when the creature rushed forward and started pawing at her leg with a stick like leg, it's heat uncomfortably warm even as it stared up at Mabel hopefully.

Wendy laughed as Mabel said, "Okay, okay. Just back up first. You're too hot for me."

She and Wendy both chuckled at the statement as the eager scampfire backed up a few steps and Mabel threw it another. This one missed its mark by a few feet and the scampfire walked up to it and kicked straight up into the air with its leg so it landed in the flames as it came back down. This move reminded Mabel of people throwing popcorn into the air to catch in their mouths. It turned expectantly toward them.

"Someone's being a show off." Wendy said, causing Mabel to laugh, which in turn caused the creature to do its rattling imitation.

"I don't see why the author of the journals thought these things were so scary," Mabel stated as it pawed at her again. She pulled out another marshmallow and it eagerly jumped for it. "Ouch!" She shrieked, dropping to snack and sticking her burnt fingers in her mouth as the startled scampfire jumped backward.

Wendy was quickly at her side, "Let me see."

Mabel took her fingers out of her mouth and Wendy said, "You're lucky. It could have been a lot worse. I think we just found out why the author was worried about these things."

Mabel looked up to see that the scampfire had run to a rock in the corner of the clearing and was tearing some moss off with its log-like leg, The short stick could barely hold it as it carried the wad of material back and held it out to the humans.

Wendy took the moist, squishy plant and pressed it to Mabel's burn.

The cool, damp material soothed the burn a little. The scampfire looked guiltily at Mabel.

"It's okay," Mabel said. "I know you didn't mean to."

It chirped at her, sounding like a high-pitched whistle that sometimes pervaded from burning logs.

Suddenly two more scampfires came out of the woods and stared at them expectantly. Wendy and Mabel glanced at each other before Wendy took a couple marshmallows from the bag and threw one to each of their new visitors with a smile on her face.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dipper and Soos finally reached the spot where he had thrown his backpack. Dipper rushed forward. Clearly, the bag itself would have to be replaced, since it was burned clear through in a few places but half the supplies within were undamaged and the rest only partially burned; as if the scampfires had found the supplies to be undesirable. Dipper sighed as he went to pick it up, "Well, it could be worse."

"Dude, you want a hand with that?"

"Sure," Dipper replied.

Soos took it from him and they started to head back toward the cliff where they'd left Wendy and Mabel.

Suddenly, a high-pitched shriek filled the air as a shadow fell over Dipper and Soos. The pair looked up just in time to see a giant bat descending upon them.

Then it wrapped its wings around Dipper, separating him from Soos as it grabbed him with its feet, rolled off the cliff and spread its wings to soar away, carrying Dipper off with it.

* * *

Wendy and Mabel were startled from their fun by a high-pitched shriek, followed by some familiar cries.

"That's Dipper and Soos!" They turned, the scampfires also looking, to see a giant bat take off the cliff and fly away, carrying Dipper between its feet as it spread its wings.

"Oh my gosh, Dipper!" Mabel shouted, her terror for her brother being carried off by a gigantic monster overpowering her fear of the view of the ground far, far below at the cliffs edge.

"We've got do something!"

"But what? That thing is in the air!"

Wendy glanced behind them and Mabel followed her gaze to the cannon.

The older girl started checking her pockets, "Do you have anything to light the fuse?"

"No." They were wasting time, it wouldn't take long for that bat to fly too far away for them to do anything for Dipper. "What are we going to do?" Suddenly, Mabel felt a wave of heat and something poking at her leg. She looked down to see a scampfire with a large stick clasped in its burning jaws, the center had caught fire but the sides were still untouched by its flames. She took one of the edges and said, "Thank you."

Mabel rushed to Wendy and held out the burning stick to her, "You light it. I'll get launched."

Then, as it sunk in what she was about to do, her feet suddenly felt as though they were made of lead. Still, she forced herself to move forward.

Seeing her heasitancy, Wendy asked, "Are you sure? If you can't do this…"

Those words were like a spell, breaking through Mabel's fear laden mind. She looked at bat again, "I'm smaller, I'll go farther. Curse or not, that thing will only shoot us so far. I have the biggest chance of getting my brother back. Its gotta to be me!"

Wendy nodded and held the stick to the fuse as the scampfires watched worriedly.

With that, she nodded and slid into the dark hole of the cannon.

As she positioned herself and stared out the circular opening above her, she prayed that the curse worked in her favor and she didn't just come down and hit a tree or something. She felt the tension building as she waited quietly.

"It's lit! Good luck Mabel."

Mabel couldn't find it in her to respond. She was terrified, her heart going at a million miles an hour. She was about to be launched over a cliff at a flying monster.

She was about to save her little brother.

She sighed in one last attempt to calm herself. _Let's do this!_

And then she was air borne.

* * *

Dipper struggled in the grasp of both clawed feet of the bat as it carried him, and then stilled as he slipped a little and took notice of just how high above the ground he was. If he did manage to wiggle loose, which seemed very possible, it would just mean a long drop to the ground. Still, he didn't want to think about what would happen to him if the bat reached its destination with him. What was he going to do?

Suddenly he heard a bang and familiar scream. He looked toward the noise to see a small, sweater garbed, brunette figure flying through the air right at them. The confused bat also turned to look and gave a startled squeak more fit for a mouse than the giant winged monster that it was. Probably thought the high-pitched noise was another bat or something, messing with its echolocation. Then it was hit and knocked off course as Mabel slammed into it, clinging to its furry chest as she yelled, "Let go of my brother, you giant winged fur ball!"

Startled and confused, the bat spiraled toward the ground, barely getting control enough to slow its descent, taking Dipper and Mabel with it.

It dropped Dipper about ten feet from the ground and he rolled, something he'd learned to do when landing hard during his time with the Manotaurs. He came to his feet just in time to see the creature collided ungracefully with the earth.

Dipper looked over to where the bat lay in a heap and called out, "Mabel!" He rushed over to the dazed creature and heard a groan as Mabel crawled out from under it's wing, moaning as she did so.

"Mabel, are you alright?" he asked, offering her his hand.

As she took it and he pulled her up, she said, "Fine, what about you?" Dipper nodded, to which Mabel responded by stating, "Next time try to be more careful doofus, Doofus." Then she poked him in the nose, startling him. She gave her brother one last smile before walking over to the bat's head and looked down at it.

* * *

Mabel stood over the bat and waited until it had recovered enough to look up at her. She stepped on its nose, light enough not to hurt but hard enough that it felt uncomfortable, "I don't care how fluffy you might be. If you mess with my friends or family again, you'll be sorry. Got that?"

She found that she wasn't exactly surprised when the bat nodded in understanding, pushing her foot off in the process. It seemed like most creatures around here at least understood English even if they couldn't speak it.

Still, she looked it in the eyes, "Good." Taking her foot away, she said, "Now get out."

The bat got up, crawled to the bottom of a nearby cliff and started scaling up away from her as fast as it could. She and Dipper watched as it took off and flew into the darkness.

They started their way back toward the cliff.

"That was amazing Mabel," Dipper stated. "How'd you get up to me, anyway?" Dipper asked.

"We used the cannon."

"What? Mabel, that was dangerous. What if you'd missed or the cannon misfired or…?"

"We had to do something, Dipper. That bat was going to fly off with you!"

Dipper sighed and nodded.

When they reached the bottom of the cliff, Dipper called out in a, "Soos? Wendy?" His voice echoed off the walls. "You there?"

"Dipper?!" Wendy called out from above.

"Dude," Soos called out, "Are you and Hambone okay?"

"We're fine," Mabel stated. "That bat won't be bothering us again anytime soon."

"Wait right there, we'll be down in a few minutes."

"I've got a better, idea." Mabel shouted. "Get the scampfires to take you to their clearing. We'll meet you there."

"Sounds good, Dude." Wendy called out.

"And don't forget my bag," Mabel called out.

"What are you doing, Mabel?" Dipper said, looking at Mabel like she was crazy.

"The scampfires helped us save you," Mabel said.

"What?"

"We wouldn't have been able to light the fuse if they hadn't come to help us," Mabel stated. "Come on, let's get up the hill. I packed extra stuff, just in case."

"What kind of extra stuff."

"You'll have to come up and find out." Mabel said teasingly and chuckled at her brother's annoyed look.

Soos and Wendy made it to the field before the bare spot in the middle of the scampfires' clearing. There were now four or five scampfires as well, and more in their cave, judging by the flickering light coming from it.

Mabel rushed over and called, "Who wants s'mores?" Grabbing up her bag and pulling them out.

"That would be awesome!" Wendy replied,

"Sounds good to me, Dude."

As this went on, Dipper walked cautiously over to the scampfires, Mabel watched out of the corner of her eye as he talked to them, probably thanking them. A few circled him and one came up and pawed at his leg with one of its feet. That brought a huge smile to the boy's face.

For the next hour, they shared their marshmallows and other s'more supplies with the scampfires. The humans used the heat to roast their marshmallows and the scampfires preferred to just roast all the parts separately. After trying the chocolate, they found it melted into a hard to burn liquid and the fire creatures lost all interest in it, whatsoever in favor of the marshmallows and graham crackers.

After the snacks, the scampfires started tussling with each other on the bare earth and the humans watched for a while, until they had a couple of close calls with the distracted fire creatures and decided it was time to call it a night.

Telling the scampfires goodbye and heading back up the hill toward the car, they reached the spot where the cannon sat, overlooking the cliff. Mabel walked by the cannon, brushing her hand against the device that they had used to save her brother's life. She leaned her head against a spot mostly bare of lichens and rested her head against the cool metal for a moment, taking a deep breath.

Then she leaned against it and looked out over the cliff into the valley below, the lake shining slightly in the moonlight as the rest of the valley took on varying shades of grays and blacks, except for the town, which glowed with the light of the streets and buildings below. She sighed and as she stared out across the distance, was relieved to note how she did not feel the paralyzing fear that had marked her experience of heights ever since going on the water tower.

Dipper came up next to her and offered her a can of Pitt Cola he'd had placed in his pack the day before, "Are you okay?"

She took it and smiled at her brother, "Yeah. Better than okay, actually." She cracked open the can and took a sip. They both stood, overlooking the scene below them until they heard Wendy and Soos nearing. Then Mabel said, "Come on, let's go back to the shack."


End file.
